I step into the next room for a one-minute bathroom break and this is what happens. How dare I even consider asking for my chair back seeing those eyes? Just have a nap, human! Glad I could warm it up for Mimi and Bella. From March 2.

This post is kind of a catch-up for the past few days, but that can be fun. I knew this past weekend I’d be busy with trapping cats and volunteering at the clinic both days so I tried to get extra work done during the week that I’d normally do over the weekend, then Friday there was a water main break that ran down the street and poured thousands of gallons of water into my basement, which I’m still dealing with. But we’ve been here and thanks for visiting!

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Shared on Facebook and Instagram

Chilling in the Studio

March 3. All 8 cats are in the studio with me today. I guess they are making sure I don’t take off and stay away all afternoon which happened twice this week when I ran errands. The room is only 8 x 10. (Hamlet is on my work table behind some things but Bean is on my lap and of course I can’t get up to photograph Hamlet.)

Jelly Bean is on my lap right now, like a warm and purring medicine ball.

Bean on my lap.

Mimi and Bella negotiate the fleecy bed at the corner of my drafting table.

Mimi and Bella at the window.

Basil takes a break in his bath to smile for the camera. On the floor to the right is a black blob that includes Giuseppe, Mewsette and Sunshine.

Basil on the stool and the boys on the floor.

The Water Main Break

Water main break!

Couldn’t be a nicer day for a water main break. Gushing down the street, down my neighbor’s driveway into their garage and basement and then down the slope to my house where it washed under the deck and into the basement by the litter boxes and covered the floor and even more ran out into the yard. It’s fixed now, what a mess to clean up. Some pretty freaked out kitties too–they couldn’t see the water on the floor and stepped right into it. Great way to start the weekend!

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Shared in Previous Years

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Daily Photo: Paper Towel Artist! 2015

Smokie sculpts his paper towels.

A new artist in the family! Smokie does a little work on a roll of paper towels in my studio. He’s quite the sculptor—I can tell he’s studied with Mewsette. He skillfully uses his teeth and all four paws to pull away all the pieces of paper towel that don’t belong there. I believe, in honor of the season, this piece is called “Snowstorm”.

A little more work…

A little off the end!

Now a toss in the air!

Now to toss it in the air and let all the loose parts fall off!

Here’s a little video of Smokie at work with Bella supervising his progress.

I really got on a roll with these multiple photos and videos. Actually, I finally cleared enough space off my smartphone to take videos, so now I do. The multiple photos has always been an issue. 🙂

Giuseppe looking dignified and Sunshine making fun of him behind his back?

Cats can do things I really don’t understand. I suppose Giuseppe and Sunshine had a reason for sitting on the wardrobe side by side and looking endearing and bored and a few other things, but I never figured out what that was. There was no foster food in the bathroom as there usually was when they stationed themselves outside the door. I had petted and praised and kissed them. Some time had passed and I took a few photos, and they just kept up their pantomime.

Why does he always do that?

I’m sure sometimes they watch me and give up. “Whatever.” What makes me think I can know all they do?

You can’t see me.

So here is a slideshow of other stills, which is probably more interesting than the video because the images are more selective. You might not expect two large, mature black cats to be cute, but they are. I apologize for the number of photos. Maybe you can puzzle out what the unspoken conversation is all about.

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Here’s a little video of the two for just about a minute.

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Daily Photo: Just Try To Look Intelligent.

Just try to look intelligent, Jelly Bean.

I have no idea what they were trying to convey by all staring at me, but Jelly Bean is trying his darnedest to look intelligent and awake. He’s usually pretty sleepy-eyed, so you can tell he’s acting awake because his eyes are open, but it might be a struggle to keep them that way. Sunshine is certainly alert.

Apparently, Bean didn’t do as he was requested and Giuseppe does not look happy about it. Mr Sunshine is in the background either crying, or laughing until he cries. I can never figure these guys out. I just take the pictures.

You really can’t do it, can you?

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In the meantime here is a photo I posted on Facebook yesterday, on my birthday. And for real, they wanted to eat my blueberry muffin.

Other daily photos shared on this date

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Three Cats Share One Sunbeam

Three black cats sharing one sun beam.

We haven’t had a whole lot of these lately!

The sun’s angle is finally changing so that we get a sliver of sun at the end of the afternoon. Mimi was the first to find it and settle, then as if drawn by some call that I couldn’t hear they each wandered in and sauntered through the sun while Mimi stayed where she was. Mr. Sunshine and Giuseppe ended up sharing it with her and, believe me, not one sparkle of that sun beam escaped their gleaming black fur.

I am transfixed by their beauty when touched by the sun.

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Wordless Wednesday: Green!

Not only one of my favorite photos of these two, but a momentous one…do you believe there was a time I wasn’t sure I could find a new photo of my cats each day?! Read to the bottom for more on this concept.

Mewsette and Giueseppe open their eyes briefly to be photographed, otherwise don’t move a whisker, then go back to sleep.

Just as it was on this day in 2010, this is (one of) today’s feature photo on Today, my daily photo blog. But you won’t have to go there to see what I wrote about them on that day! This was a while before I began posting daily photos of my cats in August 2010 (seems like longer than that for some reason, not out of photos yet), and I often posted more cat photos there than here on The Creative Cat.

So here is what I had to say:

Eyes are striking no matter the species, and cats’ eyes especially because they are usually very bright colors. In a black cat’s fur, they look like gems and often appear quite large in proportion to their facial features because of the contrast. Here they look like crescent moons in a deep night sky.

Mewsette and Giuseppe are brother and sister, two siblings of a litter of four I fostered and who still live with me. It’s a long story, but in the end they became such excellent art subjects for photography, sketches, painting and block prints. Even as adults, they are still close and tend to hang out in pairs or threes, and they sleep in a heap like kittens do, though they range form 10 to 13 pounds each.

While they look identical at first glance, I have always been able to see the differences in their features. Part of the fun of working with their images is to show those differences, and their eyes are one feature unique among each of them in color, shape and angle.

The light in this photo is somewhat cool coming from a north window with a lot of reflection from snow, so their eye colors are a little muted, but Mewsette, on the left, has very light, bright green eyes, the greenest of the litter, with very little yellow. Giueseppe’s, on the other hand, are a warm yellow amber, just enough orange so the yellow doesn’t appear lemon. Mewsette’s eyes are round like all her other features—face, head, paws, rounded ears, blunt nose. Giuseppe has wide oval eyes that are pointed at the corners, and he also has an elongated face with a prominent nose, large ears and a long body, as everything seems to be stretched.

I photograph them all the time and often use their images in my own designs as well as selling their images as stock photography. This litter is only the most recent in my household—I have about 30 years of cat photos and have the last ten years of my digitals on my website. You can see them in action in almost every entry on my blog The Creative Cat, and on my Marketplace blog you can see them in my Animal Sympathy Cards. I have eight galleries of them in the photo section on my website.

Black cats can be difficult to photograph, especially if you don’t like to use a flash, as I do not; it tends to reflect off of black fur a little harshly, creating a photo that has too much contrast, highlights flashed out and missing detail, shadows saturated with black, and very little in between. A good bit of bright ambient light from more than one direction helps to capture the details without flashing highlights. My camera is a digital SLR, but I still use many of the same lenses and photo techniques I used with my film SLR in opening up the F-stop as far as I could while reducing shutter speed to avoid motion blur and ensure a sharp clarity of all those details I had worked to preserve.

So there you have it, one of the entries that led me to consider posting daily photos of my cats here along with daily photos of other subjects on Today, which I had begun in June 2009. I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to find a good photo of my cats every day, or that people would get bored with them. Neither one seems to be the case!

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Three Great Minds, 2013

“Three Great Minds”

Really, sometimes they are too easy, posing in ways like this.

This is in the same place as yesterday’s three, but not the same kitties—this is Giuseppe, Mewsette and Mr. Sunshine, apparently thoroughly enjoying each others’ company.

At times like this it’s so clear they are siblings.

Browse some rescued cats and kittens!

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.

I have to say, I do like it, Mr. Sunshine, subtle, almost abstract. I have some talented cats here. I do like the photos that show all the assets of my beautiful cats, but I also like the abstract shots that happen to have a cat in them in a very artful way. Read more and order this photo and browse other feline photos on Portraits of Animals.

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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, The Creative Cat offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats.
From catchy and creative headlines to factual articles and fictional stories, The Creative Cat provides constant entertainment and important information to people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.